Smelling the Roses

As my daughter has been learning how to drive the past few months, one of her favorite sayings has become "They needed to slow down and smell the roses anyways." She said this as yet another person rudely passed her because she was going too "slow" (most of the time the speed limit). Two people have even gone so far to pass her in her lane and shove her off the road. She is right in her saying in many ways. We are so busy and have to get to that next appointment that we sometimes even forget the most common courtesies. One observation our family shares with each other each year is how much more rude and pushy people get as Christmas Day closes in on them. You would think it would be the opposite in the "good will to all men" season. Yet, I too am guilty of not stopping and smelling the roses during the holiday season as well as other times of the year.

I was reminded over the weekend of how I even fall into this trap of busyness. On Thursday I tripped in the house and fell managing to bang myself up pretty good. Friday morning, I had to admit that I needed to go get checked out by a doctor. Blood work and CT scan later I was found to not have any internal injuries but had jostled my insides around to the point that I am now on doctors order to take it very easy. I wish I had a more exciting story of how I injured myself but I don't.

The point of all this is was my first thought was how am I going to get everything done before Christmas. Now, that I have had a few days to sit and think about it though I realized I had allowed myself to fall into the busyness trap. I have rethought my position and realized that the recuperation time will allow me to spend some quiet time this year. I will spend more time with the girls doing things here. I have also decided that I will take a much needed break and do some crafting and reading that I enjoy doing.

Hopefully, it will not take a fall to get you to think about what fun things you can do for yourself as well as with family and friends. I would encourage you to think of a couple of things to do that will help you "stop and smell the roses" this holiday season.